City of the Blind
by The Siren Of The Underworld
Summary: As Mikael Blomkvist starts to work with a new case, he finds himself with information worthy of an international crisis. In order to solve the case, Mikael needs help from the Sweden's best hacker: Lisbeth Salander.


The original Millenium concept with all the amazing characters belong to maestro Stieg Larsson. I'm just playing in his playground and all the errors made here are mine.

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><p><strong>City of the Blind<strong>

_**Prologue: Your Personal Jesus**_

Depeche Mode's song "Personal Jesus" was playing on the background as the young girl was working her magic on the pole before the almost completely male audience. Most of them were impressed with the girl's skills (if you wanted to be polite and call it like that), but there were some exceptions to that rule.

The financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist, and also the mastermind behind the Swedish "Millenium" maganize, felt completely and utterly repulsed by the situation. The girl working as a "dancer" couldn't have been eighteen, it seemed like a miracle if she was even sixteen. And more close to the truth with her profession was the fact that she was a stripper slash prostitute, probably from a country like Russia or Estonia and trying to gain more profit and better future by coming to work in Sweden. Most likely she would start using drugs after ending up to a place like this and get killed one way or another before she had turned even eighteen. And _that_, if something, was a real tragedy.

But as tragic as it all was, those girls and this place was just a cover up story to something of a larger scale. There was a bigger fish to catch and hopefully helping these girls was one of the case's benefits. And this "bigger fish" was possibly as big as in "international terrorist" big. Mikael had gathered up some interesting facts, bits and pieces, but now he needed more evidence. This stripper club wasn't really the right place to find them, but after finding out about the place he had needed to see the place with his own eyes.

As he gazed around him in the dingy and filhty looking bar he had to work hard in order not to flinch in disgust as he took another look of his unpleasent surroundings. Sure enough, Mikael had had his share of unpleasent places, people and situations during his life and especially during his career as a journalist, but it didn't mean he had become immune to the strikes of repulsiveness of it all.

Mikael sighed and decided to head home, the sooner the better. He had seen more than enough about this place. He could have called police and give them a tip about doing a roundup in that shithole, but Mikael's latest experiences about the Swedish police and their skills wasn't exactly positive.

Oh no, Mikael had far better and far more effective plan.

He had worked hard to discover some unpleasent truths about that place and if things were going to go his way, the truth would come out with the next volume of Millenium.

That is, if certain someone was really going to help him.

And thinking of that certain someone drew another sigh from Mikael's lips.

_Lisbeth Salander._

Mikael had contacted Lisbeth two weeks ago and asked her dig up some information about a certain Swedish criminal. All the tracks in this case seemed to lead to him, but at the same time it seemed to be impossible to prove that this man, know with the nickname "El Toro" given by the Colombian terrorists he was currently cooperating with, really was the center of it all. He had his tentacles spread out all over the world but the man himself seemed to vanish every time there was something pointing to him. He was a clever one: always having someone doing his dirty work so his own hands would stay clean. But there had to be e-mails, bank accounts and phone calls to prove his part in all this and if there was someone capabable of digging all that out, it was Lisbeth.

Mikael had all the faith in the world in Lisbeth's abilities, but the problem was that Lisbeth still hadn't contacted him to let him know if she would take the case and help him or not. Mikael was sure that Lisbeth had kept herself updated with his current job (she seemed to be always fascinated with his work, if nothing else), so he would have imagined that the case would have caught her interest too. At least he hoped so. He wasn't sure what he would do if Lisbeth wouldn't soon contact him to let him know she was actually investigating the case.

He wasn't sure what he would do if Lisbeth wouldn't contact him _at all._ Never again.

Lisbeth Salander, if someone, was a master in disappearing completely, if she wanted to disappear. Mikael just hoped it wouldn't come down to that.

It had been once again months since he had last seen her. Yes, he had ran into her once or twice, but really seen her? That had been ages ago. Mikael took it as she really didn't want to see him, even though he still couldn't quite figure out why. He did understand that Lisbeth found it really akward the way he had digged out all her dirty little secrets in order to help her, but Mikael had thought that he had proven himself to be worthy of her trust. So he couldn't quite figure it out why she avoided him like a plague.

If he had been a wise man, he would have given up the hope a long time ago. But he really cpuldn't consider himself as a wise one, so he still held small, tiny peck of hope. A hope of getting a real part in Lisbeth Salander's life some day. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but there was just something in Lisbeth that really drew him into her. Something that really made him want to be close to her or even with her.

Mikael came to the conclusion that sulking and pondering about Lisbeth Salander's complicated intellectual personal level in a stripper bar wasn't exactly the best of plans. In fact, he had what he wanted to gain that night: he had seen the place, the poor girls working there and all the scum surronding them, so he might as well head back home.

As he gathered his things and headed for the door, he didn't notice a man giving a discreet sign to another man.

Mikael had been spotted and identified.

And now, he was also followed.

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><p>AN: Hey you all! First of all, I humbly THANK YOU ALL who reviewed my one shot earlier one, I read and cherished all of your reviews (even though I've been so busy that I still haven't answered you guys, sorry!). I can't believe how encouring they all were, if I had foreseen your reactions, I would have posted my ficlet earlier on. I humbly bow before you all.

Second of all, I just went to see the "MI4: Ghost Protocol" and even though I'm not a fan of those movies, our Micke Nyqvist was simply awesome as the bad guy! I'm still just so thrilled and I want to see it again! I admit, that movie experience and your reviews worked as my inspiration to start working on this new piece of work.

I have written some rough drafts how the story should continue, and I plan to make this current work a longer story with various chapters and complicated plot. I'm really nervous, I have never ever done anything like this. I hope you guys keep encouring me!


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